For summer reading I recommend Open Ice by Jack Falla. He was a professor of mine at BU and always told the greatest hockey stories from his days at Sports Illustrated. My favorite was when he actually skated in an Oilers practice on a line with Gretzky and Kurri.

Pettersson is easily better than Barzal? Um OK, based on what? They look pretty similar to me, although I give the slight edge to Barzal.

Kyle Connor has scored 31 goals, then 34, then 38, and was on pace for 38 more this year. He's just 24 and an elite goal scorer. I know he's a winger. But how can you just declare Pettersson is easily better?

You also seem to be missing the most important element. I never actually argued that ANYONE on this list was better than Pettersson. I personally think several of them are. I guess you disagree. My point is simple...even in a scenario where Pettersson improves our team, you are sacrificing 4 opportunities to add players of this calibre. For ONE Pettersson. Sorry. I'll pass. I'll take 4 more picks between 10-20 and I like the odds of hitting on a couple of them. Barzal + Hamilton is better than Pettersson. Larkin + Rantanen is better than Pettersson. Connor + Chychrun is better than Pettersson. Sorry. I know this is pretty complicated.



- Kooleus

Yesterday Yzerman was bad at drafting now it’s keep the picks for the extremely low statistical odds of getting 2 high end players. Lmao.

Pettersson is easily better than Barzal? Um OK, based on what? They look pretty similar to me, although I give the slight edge to Barzal.

Kyle Connor has scored 31 goals, then 34, then 38, and was on pace for 38 more this year. He's just 24 and an elite goal scorer. I know he's a winger. But how can you just declare Pettersson is easily better?

You also seem to be missing the most important element. I never actually argued that ANYONE on this list was better than Pettersson. I personally think several of them are. I guess you disagree. My point is simple...even in a scenario where Pettersson improves our team, you are sacrificing 4 opportunities to add players of this calibre. For ONE Pettersson. Sorry. I'll pass. I'll take 4 more picks between 10-20 and I like the odds of hitting on a couple of them. Barzal + Hamilton is better than Pettersson. Larkin + Rantanen is better than Pettersson. Connor + Chychrun is better than Pettersson. Sorry. I know this is pretty complicated.



- Kooleus

I think you are grossly overestimating the likelihood that Detroit hits first line / first pair performers out of at least two of those picks. It's certainly possible but I wouldn't have anything approaching your level of confidence in it.

If you look at some of the research that has been done on the historical success of players taken at a given point in the draft, you realize that elite talent beyond the top three is very much the exception rather than the rule. The average 10th overall pick, for example, is basically a third-line forward once fully developed. Which means half of the guys taken there are even worse than that.

Even looking at the infamous #6 overall, there are a lot more upper-middle-of-the-road NHLers than actual stars. Here's every guy taken 6th overall since 2000:

Drysdale
Seider
Zadina
Glass
M. Tkachuk
Zacha
Virtanen
Monahan
Lindholm
Zibanejad
Connoly
Ekman-Larsson
Filatov
Gagner
Brassard
Brule
Montoya
M. Michalek
Upshall
M. Koivu
Hartnell

How many of those guys are or were better than Pettersson? Jury is still out on the last few years, but even then very, very few.

Yes there are diamonds in the rough and yes it's possible the Wings find a couple -- or even win a lottery or two and take a crack at a much surer bet. There's always a risk that a big offer sheet will blow up in your face.

But it's also very easy to imagine a scenario where the Wings go four more years without winning a lottery and without drafting a single elite talent. And four years down the road we still have the same problem -- a team full of decent complementary players but nobody to build around.

I've been saying that this is going to be a very interesting draft. Detroit has some luxuries not all teams have, which is 23 full-time scouts, 18 of them are amateur scouts. If you added their advisors, it's really 26 scouts. Look at Buffalo, they have 10 total. Anaheim & Columbus have 15. Just in amateur scouts, Detroit has nearly double what Buffalo has in all scouts and more than what most teams have in combined pro and amateur scouts. In the early days of Yzerman's time with TB, they too had a small scouting staff that he fought to build up, but it's still smaller than Detroit's staff. That's why I don't completely fault him on some of his misses in TB.

It's fun to speculate and question what they are doing, but the reality is, compared to most teams, Detroit has a huge scouting staff who is watching hundreds of hours of video of the players we speculate on. They know their tendencies, they know their floors and ceilings, and most importantly, they are projecting out line-ups years from now and determining how each pick might fit into that mix. We have no choice but to trust that they have the right assets in place to evaluate talent, because none of us knows anywhere near as much about these players as they do. In a draft where so many players either haven't played, or saw limited action, or on different ice, or playing with older players, the teams with the luxury of very large amateur scouting staff will find some players who will surprise us all.
- bluelineenforcer

Interesting info. about the Stevie's scouting entourage. One very important fact I'll add... the Wings still have Hakan Andersson.. the best European scout in the NHL... probably for the last 20 years or so. He also scouted Seider and had a lot of input in getting him.

Jeremy Laura: Mo Swagger for Detroit’s top D prospect
- Jeremy Laura

Word is Hyman turned down a “long term” deal worth around $5m/yr….Rumors, but if Detroit could land him…..

Jeremy Laura: Mo Swagger for Detroit’s top D prospect
- Jeremy Laura

Word is Hyman turned down a “long term” deal worth around $5m/yr….Rumors, but if Detroit could land him…..

Word is Hyman turned down a “long term” deal worth around $5m/yr….Rumors, but if Detroit could land him…..
- mcmastermike1968

Hard pass.

Yesterday Yzerman was bad at drafting now it’s keep the picks for the extremely low statistical odds of getting 2 high end players. Lmao.
- Feds91Stammer

I didn't say he was bad at drafting. Just said several people in these parts act like he can do no wrong.

I'm also well aware of the stats on what a #9-18 pick can do. I think with 4 picks the chances of hitting on 2 of them, with our scouting staff, is pretty decent. But OK. You think Pettersson is worth sacrificing four 1st round picks. Cool. Lucky Yzerman is the GM and not you...

Word is Hyman turned down a “long term” deal worth around $5m/yr….Rumors, but if Detroit could land him…..
- mcmastermike1968

I tried to reach out to a “source” to try and confirm. The water around this and RNH is murkier than Lake Eerie. RNH seemed like a done deal months ago, but something went wrong. Now they can’t seem to get back on track. With Hyman, he took a real “team friendly” deal last time and is 28 now. He needs to cash in as best he can because it may well be his last deal.

Toronto’s biggest advantage is cash. If he can get 5 or 5.25 with everything but league min in signing bonuses it’s a serious boost in take home. It’s also immunity for a shortened season.

Being that we are weak down the middle, why not make a deal with Tampa taking Johnson off their hands.....Just add Cerelli as the sweetener! Tampa guts nearly $10M in salary and signs their RFA's and FA's and promotes a couple of their other 5 centers and takes another shot at the cup! Just a thought on acquiring center help.

The thing I have to ask is, as years have gone by have the players available at picks 9 through 20, have they not gotten better overall? Like the quality and quantity has become improved. I think so, and with that the chances of landing 2 outta 4 picks or better being higher end talent are more likely? Just a thought.